Space Rogue

Space Rogue Dev Blog 01 - Objectives

I absolutely love Hollow Knight. I find it's never easy to rank the best of the best and would probably waffle on my top 10 or top 5 games of all times list. That being said, Hollow Knight could very well be my favorite game of all time. Therefore it's only natural when considering game creation, that it would be on my mind.

I want to create a game where:

• It feels good to play. 

• The controls feel natural.

• Doing nothing is fun.

• I can manage the scope.

With those principals I landed on a 2.5 D platformer/MetroidVania and will utilize Hollow Knight as consistent reference material.

The Tasks

1. Player movement

For me, managing the first 3 bullets/goals above has strong clarity. For my very first task -> I need to develop a primary character and focus on character movement and control. When I say "doing nothing should be fun", what I mean is that even without game objectives & tasks the game should be fun to play. Jumping, attacking inanimate objects, exploring, moving from screen to screen -> these should all be fun moments! When I think of the best games, Mario, Zelda, Hollow Knight - the down time in these games is fun. Jumping and attacking, diving and rolling are enjoyable, every touch of the controller has a purpose. This is fundamental to great games. Conversely compared to really bad and unenjoyable games it's often the controls or monotonous tasks that make it boring and un-fun to play.

2. The Camera

As far as the scope goes - creating a 2.5 D game with a fixed camera will help me manage. Using a fixed camera, I can limit player movement & I can more easily manipulate art assets and interaction objects. 

Next...

That's it. That's the start. Keep it simple I say. I'll work on those things and report back with challenges, output and the learning from completing those first 2 steps. See you soon!